God is a God of balance. He wants us to be a people of balance in all areas of our lives – even in the area of beauty. When we walk in balance, we walk in great peace and joy. Our enemy is no fool, he knows that, and he does not want us walking in that place. He wants to throw our lives out of balance, so that we will be miserable and stressed out.
Satan is very good at throwing us off balance by distorting our understanding of the truth. He takes one side of the truth or the other and blows it out of proportion. When we believe these distorted truths, we are left off balance and confused … and God is not glorified in our stressed and striving lives.
The truth about beauty is that God designed it; He loves it, He wants it to reflect Him and to draw others to Him. He wants to be sought after for His beauty, and He made us to feel the same way.
Satan wants us to be ashamed of our beauty and to hide it … or to seek after it with an ungodly obsession. I often speak about Eve’s attempt to hide her beauty because of her shame and of the woman at the well who must have been striving to prove herself desirable after failing at so many relationships. I imagine the other women saw her as a threat, otherwise she would have drawn her water in the cool of the day when they did.
Both of these women were off-balance. They had each fallen for a distorted truth. Neither hiding our beauty nor striving for it is glorifying to the One who created our image to reflect His. People are not comfortable around women who are ashamed of themselves, nor do they desire to be around beauty that is prideful or has an agenda to win approval (and not friendship).
Ladies, let us be careful to keep our beauty in balance. Do not be ashamed of your image. The angel who idolizes his beauty would love for you to hide yours in shame and self-contempt! But be careful not to fall for the other side of his twisted truth either; remember he fell from Heaven because of his pride, and he would love for you to do the same. Your image is not your worth, but it’s power is not to be underestimated.
Beauty has a power to inspire, nurture, empower others and to strengthen others. That is why we choose lovely places to be refreshed during our vacations, it is why we send flowers to the grieving and ill. Most feelings of power encompass a snare that can trip up even the most humble of humans. Like fire, beauty’s power to draw others to it can also be used to burn people badly.
The feminine power to call forth a man’s strength was designed for God’s glory, not the girl’s, not the guy’s. If we can keep that in mind, we won’t fall for our enemy’s attempts to through us off-balance.
Confident Beauty is Beauty in Balance.
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Catrina Welch is an image- and life-coach whose message is not as much “what not to wear” as it is, “Know Who You Are,” which is the title of her book of guidelines for your personal image identity. Catrina has also written a Bible study to help women overcome their image issues. It is titled Supreme MakeOver: a Rich and Refreshing Devotional Experience. Her other books include Footprints Through the Sand: a Consolidation of Life-altering stories about Loving and Loosing a Trisomy-18 Baby and Confident Beauty: Reflecting the One Who Made You with the Images in Your Mirror and Your Soul, which will be available soon.
If you are interested in getting these books or having Catrina come speak at your event, you can contact her at www.CatrinaWelch.com or on facebook.
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